Chapter 545: Old Trick Revisited

Hartmann’s plane charged towards his opponent, the distance between them gradually closing. Just as the Soviet fighter pilot centered his sights on Hartmann, Hartmann’s plane suddenly began to maneuver to the side.

In Hartmann’s hands, this new Ta-152 fighter seemed to have a life of its own, performing all sorts of agile movements in the air. No Soviet plane could catch him. But Hartmann was not just simply evading the Soviet fighters’ encirclement; while avoiding most of them, he was also looking for his own opportunity.

Since the First World War, the air forces of all nations had been developing their own fighter tactics, and the tactics of this period were often naive and immature. Aerial combat relied on individual dogfighting supported by personal flying skills.

The experience gained in the late stages of the war and in local conflicts like the Spanish Civil War led the air forces of various countries to begin developing their own unique fighters and corresponding flight techniques. Undoubtedly, the Germans were world leaders in summarizing war experience and learning advanced technology. They were a direct participant in the Spanish Civil War and were also pretty much its biggest beneficiary.

In Spain, the German Air Force gradually rejected its own air combat theory of large, dense formation flying, because actual combat had proven that this formation method, which originated in the First World War, was already outdated. German pilots began to try flexible and variable flight cover modes and began to fully popularize the more threatening “four-plane formation.”

This flight mode was called the “four-finger formation” within Germany, because the four aircraft maintained a distance and flew in a slanted line, much like a person holding out their four fingers. This flight formation was much more flexible than the British V-formation, and the actual combat results of the Battle of Britain also proved that the German flight formation was indeed more advanced.

The four-finger formation was composed of two independent two-plane elements, which meant that German fighters in combat were based on two planes covering each other. This was the connection between the leader and the wingman—the leader attacked while the wingman covered, and the wingman attacked while the leader covered. Most of the time, the rear of a German pilot would be covered by a comrade, which was undoubtedly a very efficient combat method for air combat.

Now, Hartmann had lost his leader and was fighting alone. This created a lot of trouble for him: he had to constantly watch his rear to prevent the opponent from getting on his tail and attacking. He was like a man walking on the edge of a cliff; the slightest mistake would cause him to fall to his doom.

After breaking away from the surrounding Soviet fighters, Hartmann had lost altitude but had no intention of climbing. To avoid the Soviet fighters’ fire, he had ultimately chosen to dive down. The Soviet pilots were happy to see this choice; at least at low altitude, the performance gap between their fighters would be smaller.

But no one had expected that Hartmann had another purpose in descending. It was only when the Soviet pilots heard the panicked screams and cries for help of their comrades in their headsets that they knew why the German pilot had been diving all along.

There were still two old I-16s that couldn’t make it to the main stage at low altitude! Those were also Soviet fighters! Although it was a bit inhumane to use a Ta-152 to attack such scrap metal as the I-16, who could care about that on the battlefield?

After all, the first rule of the German Eastern Front air combat manual clearly stated that any plane that didn’t have an Iron Cross painted on its wings must be shot down. Hartmann had not forgotten those two decoy I-16 fighters from beginning to end; he just hadn’t had the time to shoot them down.

At the beginning, he had to save his squadron commander, so he could only dogfight with the superior Soviet P-40 fighters at medium and high altitudes. Now that his leader was out of danger, there was nothing to stop him from taking some time to increase his own kill count—after all, shooting down an I-16 also counted as a kill.

He centered the reticle of his sight on the fuselage of an I-16, completely ignoring the terrified, contorted face of the Soviet pilot in the open cockpit, and gently squeezed the trigger. The cannon fired again, easily turning the old Soviet fighter into spare parts. After all, the power of the German fighter’s 30mm hub-mounted cannon was simply too great. This thing had been designed and installed on the aircraft in advance to deal with Allied strategic bombers. To use it against fighters was a bit too cruel.

This was one of the reasons why the loss rate of the British and French air force pilots who faced the German air force was so high. Because the German fighters used 20mm and 30mm cannons, which would often cause the enemy plane to disintegrate and explode upon impact, while other countries’ planes at the same time often used 7.62mm machine guns. The huge gap in firepower between the two sides was imaginable.

One cannot simply assume that a 20mm and 30mm cannon combined with a 13mm aircraft machine gun is necessarily better than a 12.7mm aircraft machine gun combined with a 7.62mm machine gun, because the larger the caliber, the less ammunition can be carried. In other words, the two firepower configurations just had different focuses.

Before the appearance of the German “Butcher” strategic bomber, the Allied air forces did not have the mission of intercepting enemy long-range bombers, so they generally chose a smaller caliber firepower configuration to increase the amount of ammunition they carried, to facilitate long-duration air combat. Because novice pilots have a limited ability to control their aircraft, a large amount of ammunition can better compensate for the embarrassment of missing their target.

Another advantage was also obvious: smaller caliber weapons could be packed in greater numbers. So the American planes of the same period were often equipped with six 7.62mm machine guns on their wings. Their firepower density was twice or even more than that of the German fighters, which was another advantage.

The current situation of the German army was just the opposite. Since Akado came to power, the German Air Force had been closely monitoring the development of the opponent’s large bombers. The firepower configuration of the air force aircraft had always taken into account the possible appearance of enemy long-range bombers. For example, the hub-mounted cannon of the Fw-190D had always maintained a 30mm caliber. It was only to increase the amount of ammunition carried that the wing weapons of some aircraft were changed to 13mm cannons.

The weapons of the German Air Force aircraft, whose final design was personally overseen by Akado, were astonishingly powerful, but they were not very friendly to novice pilots. Many German pilots would quickly run out of ammunition due to nervousness and would be forced to return to base for resupply just after joining the battle. So the squadron commander’s moment of tension when his plane malfunctioned had made him fire off all the shells in his plane, resulting in his current embarrassing situation.

Of course, because many German pilots had participated in the Spanish Civil War and had fought in large-scale air battles such as those over Poland, France, and Britain, and had rich combat experience, the problem of the German air force’s low ammunition capacity was not particularly obvious. On the contrary, the advantage of their cannons’ greater power over their opponents was fully demonstrated. The increased power brought by the large-caliber cannons brought more psychological panic, and the terrifying killing effect of the enemy pilots being basically unable to bail out and escape.

Speaking of which, there were not many freaks like Hartmann who used short bursts of fire as soon as they joined the battle. This legend in the history of air combat could be considered an anomaly that was not covered by statistics.

Hartmann, who had shattered an I-16 with a few cannon shells, once again played a fancy roll. He yanked the control stick, and the whole plane rolled again. With this roll, he pointed the nose of his plane at another fleeing Soviet fighter. It was another short burst of fire, at a distance so close that one might have thought the two planes had collided. But with the sound of an explosion, Hartmann’s plane charged out of the flames and continued to dive towards the ground.

“My God, didn’t he fly like this last time too? It’s really too much for the heart to bear,” the squadron commander murmured to himself, watching everything happen from his high-altitude circle.

This was the first time he had seen a pilot so recklessly charge around in the sky, and also the first time he had seen such a delightful aerial dogfight. This did not seem to be a life-or-death battle, but a gorgeous aerial performance. To have interpreted the bloody aerial entanglement with the flavor of a ballet, the squadron commander now understood why the Führer had personally sent him to the front.

“Careful, Hartmann! Three enemy planes are behind you! There’s another one on your upper rear flank! Don’t pull up, you’ll be hit!” All he could do now was to remind Hartmann of the situation behind him, so that he would not be shot down by the opponent due to a lack of visibility.

If only I still had ammunition, how great that would be! Even if I only had 20 shells, I could charge down, instantly rewrite the entire battle situation, and win a glorious victory in a great air battle. He looked at his instrument panel with frustration. The warning light that was constantly flashing to indicate an engine malfunction. The squadron commander really wanted to curse out the guy who had maintained his plane, to vent his unwilling mood at this moment.

The battle would not pause for his frustration and unwillingness. At this moment, Hartmann, after hearing the squadron commander’s reminder, did not immediately pull up his plane to regain his lost altitude, but quickly performed a side slip, with his wings at a left-high, right-low angle.

The Soviet fighters who were chasing him, of course, would not let the ever-lower Hartmann go. When they saw the other party wanted to change course, they immediately adopted a side-slip posture as well, wanting to cut into Hartmann’s flight path from the inside corner. But just as these Soviet planes were side-slipping to the right and turning with Hartmann, they discovered that Hartmann had changed his flight state again.

Published: 2025-09-04T04:08:27.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-12-20T08:50:44.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c545-old-138089491

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